Marketing actions can modulate neural representations of experienced pleasantness

@article{citeulike:2238389, abstract = {Despite the importance and pervasiveness of marketing, almost nothing is known about the neural mechanisms through which it affects decisions made by individuals. We propose that marketing actions, such as changes in the price of a product, can affect neural representations of experienced pleasantness. We tested this hypothesis by scanning human subjects using functional MRI while they tasted wines that, contrary to reality, they believed to be different and sold at different prices. Our results show that increasing the price of a wine increases subjective reports of flavor pleasantness as well as blood-oxygen-level-dependent activity in medial orbitofrontal cortex, an area that is widely thought to encode for experienced pleasantness during experiential tasks. The paper provides evidence for the ability of marketing actions to modulate neural correlates of experienced pleasantness and for the mechanisms through which the effect operates. 10.1073/pnas.0706929105}, author = {Plassmann, Hilke and O'Doherty, John and Shiv, Baba and Rangel, Antonio }, citeulike-article-id = {2238389}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.0706929105}, journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, keywords = {pnas, wine}, month = {January}, pages = {0706929105+}, posted-at = {2008-01-23 08:43:47}, priority = {2}, title = {Marketing actions can modulate neural representations of experienced pleasantness}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0706929105}, year = {2008} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2238389 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2238389 TI - Marketing actions can modulate neural representations of experienced pleasantness JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences SP - 0706929105 N2 - Despite the importance and pervasiveness of marketing, almost nothing is known about the neural mechanisms through which it affects decisions made by individuals. We propose that marketing actions, such as changes in the price of a product, can affect neural representations of experienced pleasantness. We tested this hypothesis by scanning human subjects using functional MRI while they tasted wines that, contrary to reality, they believed to be different and sold at different prices. Our results show that increasing the price of a wine increases subjective reports of flavor pleasantness as well as blood-oxygen-level-dependent activity in medial orbitofrontal cortex, an area that is widely thought to encode for experienced pleasantness during experiential tasks. The paper provides evidence for the ability of marketing actions to modulate neural correlates of experienced pleasantness and for the mechanisms through which the effect operates. 10.1073/pnas.0706929105 KW - pnas KW - wine AU - Plassmann, Hilke AU - O'Doherty, John AU - Shiv, Baba AU - Rangel, Antonio PY - 2008/01/14/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0706929105 ER -